Canadian bankers ask government to hit ‘pause’ button on regulation

Terry Campbell, the president of the Canadian Bankers Association, says it would be “useful” for the federal government to hit the “pause button” on regulatory reform.

During a luncheon speech in Ottawa on Tuesday, Mr. Campbell said the temporary respite, now or “in the not too distant future” would provide time to assess the new balance between risk-management and innovation in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The system could be sized up to determine if there conflicts, inconsistencies or unintended consequences, he said.

“You can’t make changes in one area without experiencing effects in the others, and we certainly have seen a lot of change on the regulatory side driven by the international regulatory agenda,” Mr. Campbell said in prepared remarks in which he also questioned whether increased global regulation will result in less diversification and banks being pushed out of legitimate products and services.

“I think that this kind of stock-taking would be a useful process for the government, the regulators, and the financial sector to pursue, because it would allow us to focus on what we need to do to ensure that Canada will continue to have the strongest, soundest banking system in the world, one that gives Canadians the products and services that they value,” Mr. Campbell said.